Mark hORTON

In 1587, a group of 117 English colonists, commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh, landed on the island of Roanoke in North Carolina, earning the distinction of becoming North America’s first permanent English settlement and home to the first English child born in the New World. But three years later a relief ship found the colony mysteriously abandoned, leaving behind only the word CROATOAN carved on a palisade – and one of the most enduring mysteries in American history. Were they massacred? Taken captive? Or did they assimilate with a local Native American tribe?

In 2025, nearly half a millennium later, and after a decade-long excavation, archaeologist and BBC Coast regular Mark Horton finally unearthed the evidence that may have cracked the riddle once and for all…